Some people come to a relationship with the Lord late in life; others have known Him all their lives. Such is the case with Ken Ham, a man whose faith story starts before he can even remember.
Ken says, “You know, like in Timothy, ‘from a child you have known the scriptures’. Timothy was taught the scriptures from the time he was a child and that’s how our parents taught us and so I can’t even point to a time when I did not believe in God.”
His parents, missionaries from Australia stood firmly on the Word of God.
“We grew up in a home where my father, he probably didn’t use the term but he really had an apologetic spent. Apologetics in the sense of defense of the Christian faith. First Peter 3;15 ‘Always be prepared to give answers’. And so, from that Greek word which we translate the word, answers we get the word apologetics which means, give an answer back or a logical reason defense of the faith. And so, I was brought up in that environment.” He adds, “I’d often hear my father take out the Bible and go up to the pastor and say, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord. Have you not read it is written?’ There are sort of his favorite passages of the Bible and that had a great affect on me as a young child.”
At an early age, he made a commitment.
“At about 10 years old, one of the mission programs my parents had organized would bring children in and there was a challenge for those who wanted to be a missionary for the Lord and it was at that stage that I went forward to be a missionary for the Lord. I basically said, ’I want to go where you want me to go and to do what you want me to do. I want to be a missionary for you’. I believe that was me saying, ’Yes, I do put my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ’. And really, that’s really how it should be.” He goes on to say, “I believe that when I was ten years old I was really say yes to what my parents taught me, ‘Yes, that’s true and yes, I do put my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ’. And so it wasn’t dramatic in a sense it was more natural.”
That commitment to a mission field took him to a foreign land that he firmly believed was losing and changing the very basics of its Christian beliefs. Ken Ham came to America to call the church back to the foundation of the authority of the word of God and started right at the beginning in the book of Genesis. But little did he know what God had in store for him and his work here.
“We look back and say it’s just amazing to see how the Lord has guided and directed us, in miraculous ways. Miraculous things have happened that humanly speaking there’s no way that these things could have ever come about,” Ken said.
In part two of Ken Ham’s story we’ll see what miracles God had in store and how he is changing things back to the way it was written from the Bible.
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